It's time to take a hike!

Petrol prices have gone up to RM 2.70, from RM 1.92. That is a 40.625% increase in one go. I don't drive to work, but I'm still spending around RM 250-350 on petrol every month. With this hike (ceteris paribus), I will spend at least another RM 100 on petrol. The amount is quite significant considering the size of my monthly take home income.

Whatever it is, I will survive, for now. For someone like me, who doesn't really have any mouth to feed other than myself, I can easily cover that increase by cutting a few excesses. There will be less Subway, Pizza Hut and McDonald's for me. I got to cut my intake of fast food anyway. My waistline is growing as fast as the petrol price. Haha..

While the increase in petrol price came with a cash rebate, I believe the government need to pursue a long term solution to this issue. One way to make petrol price increments less painful is to make people less dependent on petrol. We, Malaysians have become too dependent on our cars and motorcycles. This is proven by the way Malaysians went to fill up their tanks after the price increase announcement by the Prime Minister. The queues at the stations near my house can be estimated at around 30 cars per petrol pump for the whole night.

Government need to boost the public transportation system, especially in the urban areas. More lines of LRT and monorail need to be built urgently. There should be more buses on the road, and the buses should serve all routes, regardless the demand. One important thing is not to privatise the public transportation system. The current system under RapidKL should be expanded rather than be torn apart.

The government need to maintain public transportation directly under their watch because a number of reasons. First, not many private enterprises can run public transportation system profitably. The collapse of Intrakota, Star and Putra are the prime examples. Secondly, the government need to prove their commitment in improving the transportation system to the public, and the best way to prove their commitment is by putting money where their mouths are. Then only they can gain the public's trust on the transportation system.

In the meantime, we all have just got to adapt to the situation. In economy, there good and bad times. We are in a bad time. Let's just hope that the good times will come sooner rather than later.